Water woes in Navi Mumbai despite full dam, NMMC staggers timings

NMMC has now staggered the water supply timings in different areas to ensure that all areas get water supply with the same pressure.

NMMC-owned Morbe dam had overflowed on September 24 but this hasn’t brought much respite to residents of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) in terms of uninterrupted water supply. Residents residing especially in nodes of Airoli, Koparkhairane, Ghansoli and even parts of Nerul have been lamenting the acute shortage of water faced on a daily basis. The issue has gone political after BJP leader Ganesh Naik on Thursday called upon the Municipal commissioner to address the issue.

Water woes in Navi Mumbai despite full dam, NMMC staggers timings

“The entire issue surrounding inadequate water in Navi Mumbai is purely due to the administration’s mismanagement. When NMMC owned Morbe has overflown, how are the taxpayers not receiving uninterrupted water supply? questioned Naik. He further stated, “ I have raised my objection and sought a solution from the commissioner at the earliest. There is gross mismanagement happening in the supply system which needs to be addressed or else face severe opposition,” he added.

Concern surrounding lack of adequate water is regularly voiced by residents through social media. Residents say the NMMC has little regard for the plight of residents going by the regular maintenance-related water shutdowns undertaken by the civic body.

“Every fortnight there are sudden announcements made about shutdowns for repair works or the other perennial issue is about low pressure. Society water tanks seldom get full nowadays, leading to crisis situations in most of the residential sectors,” said a resident Avinash Vasudevan.

Complaints about supply of murky water is another issue adding to residents’ worries. “In various parts of Koparkhairane, there are households that continue to receive murky water. No amount of complaints to the water department has brought about any change,” said a resident not willing to be named.

Resident’s ire reached its peak last week when women carrying earthen pots barged into the City Engineer’s office questioning the water scarcity in areas like Sarsole and Nerul west. The area largely consists of CIDCO-built buildings that don’t have storage water tanks. “We are dependent on daily water supply to fulfill our daily needs as our buildings don’t have storage tanks. Due to the lack of pressure, on most days, the water supply reaches maximum first floors. We wanted to show the officers the hardships faced by us; therefore we had assembled at the office,” said a woman participating in the strike.

Former corporators attributed the issue of scarcity to NMMC’s erroneous policies. “Navi Mumbai acquires water from two sources - Morbe dam and Barvi dam. Almost 180 MLD water is to be drawn from Barvi and supplied to Digha, Airoli and Ghansoli. But for reasons unknown, the quantity of water to be drawn from Barvi was reduced to 80 MLD. Instead of supplying the entire quantity for Navi Mumba residents, NMMC is diverting almost 40 MLD to CIDCO Nodes like Kharghar and Kamothe. It is such thoughtless actions that are causing problems to the residents,” said former Nerul corporator Suraj Patil.

Taking cognisance of the hardships faced by residents, the civic administration on Friday worked out a new water supply schedule for the entire city. To ensure that every household receives at least five to six hours of uninterrupted water supply, the engineering department has decided to alter the timing to fill the nodal water tanks. “The issue is more about low pressure. To address that after a thorough study, we have decided to have separate timings for getting the nodal reservoirs filled instead of the earlier practice of trying to fill every tank at the same time. Once the nodal reservoirs are filled, supply to consumers will happen properly,” said the city engineer Sanjay desai.

Accordingly, the storage reservoir in nodes like Vashi, Turbhe, Koparkhairane will be filled between 4.30 am to 11.30 pm, while the reservoir of Ghansoli will be filled from 8.30 pm to 2.00 am and in case of Airoli and Digha node, the storage reservoirs are to be filled between 2 pm to 4 pm.

The solution would even address the deficit in supply seen in areas receiving water from MIDC. “From Barvi, we were getting 80 MLD water but even that has now come down to 60 to 65 MLD due to which water from Morbe dam had to be routed to fill this deficit. In the revised schedule, since reservoir filling will happen in separate duration, the load should be evenly distributed and will ensure there is no water shortage faced,” added the additional city engineer Manoj Patil.